From eye to arrow: Attention capture by direct gaze requires more than just the eyes

Abstract

Human attention is strongly attracted by direct gaze and sudden onset motion. The sudden direct-gaze effect refers to the processing advantage for targets appearing on peripheral faces that suddenly establish eye contact. Here, we investigate the necessity of social information for attention capture by (sudden onset) ostensive cues. Six experiments involving 204 participants applied (1) naturalistic faces, (2) arrows, (3) schematic eyes, (4) naturalistic eyes, or schematic facial configurations (5) without or (6) with head turn to an attention-capture paradigm. Trials started with two stimuli oriented towards the observer and two stimuli pointing into the periphery. Simultaneous to target presentation, one direct stimulus changed to averted and one averted stimulus changed to direct, yielding a 2 × 2 factorial design with direction and motion cues being absent or present. We replicated the (sudden) direct-gaze effect for photographic faces, but found no corresponding effects in Experiments 2–6. Hence, a holistic and socially meaningful facial context seems vital for attention capture by direct gaze. Statement of significance The present study highlights the significance of context information for social attention. Our findings demonstrate that the direct-gaze effect, that is, the prioritization of direct gaze over averted gaze, critically relies on the presentation of a meaningful holistic and naturalistic facial context. This pattern of results is evidence in favor of early effects of surrounding social information on attention capture by direct gaze.

Don’t look at me like that: Integration of gaze direction and facial expression.

“…Although the present study revealed an interaction between gaze cues and emotion expressions, there was no evidence that gaze and motion cues interacted. This pattern is in line with previous studies with this paradigm (Böckler et al, 2014, 2015; Boyer & Wang, 2018; Breil et al, 2022; van der Wel et al, 2018). Similarly, the effect of sudden onset motion was not modulated by emotion expression in any of the experiments, neither on the level of performance nor in measures of gaze behavior.…”

“…An alternative explanation is that anger and fear are particularly strong and action-related emotions that could override effects of gaze direction, especially when they are presented in a sudden fashion and simultaneous with gaze shifts (Ortony & Turner, 1990;Schupp et al, 2004;Vuilleumier, 2002). Interestingly, sudden onset motion effects were preserved in both experiments, which further points toward the independence of gaze and motion cues (see also Böckler et al, 2014;Breil et al, 2022).…”

Does Eye Gaze Uniquely Trigger Spatial Orienting to Socially Relevant Information? A Behavioral and ERP Study

“…Some researchers consider eye gaze as a unique social cue for attention and have demonstrated different neural mechanisms for attention orienting triggered by social gaze cues and non-social arrow cues [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ], since gaze cues can facilitate joint attention. For example, Friesen et al [ 15 ] used a central cueing paradigm to test the differences in attention orienting triggered by eye gaze and arrow cues.…”